Democracy, Democratization, and Development in Post-Cold War Africa (1990-2012)

ADRIEN M. RATSIMBAHARISON

doi:10.12944/crjssh.1.2.02

Abstract

This research project addresses the question of whether democracy would be better than any other political systems to promote development. It attempts to find out whether democracy and democratization have led to a better economic performance in democratic and democratizing countries in Africa. Using data on development from the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in combination with data on regime characteristics from the Polity IV Project and Freedom House, this research project finds that democracy has weak statistical correlations with development, as indicated by the Human Development Index (HDI) and the gross national income (GNI) per capita of the fifty and so African countries since the end of the Cold War. Nevertheless, this study also finds that democratizing countries seem to have better economic performances than the other African countries.

Highlights

The relationships between democracy and development have been the subject of countless speculations and research projects for some time.a few decades ago, some modernization theorists suggested that economic development, through different intervening variables such as the improvement of the education and the emergence of a strong middle class, would eventually lead to democracy in dictatorial regimes
Requisites of Democracy, he makes the argument that economic prosperity would give rise to a literate middle class, which would espouse liberal values and seek to defend its newly acquired assets through the institution of democratic political systems
It addresses the questions of whether democracy would be better than any other political systems to promote development in Africa and whether democratic and/or democratizing countries have better economic performances than the other African countries

Summary

Introduction

The relationships between democracy and development have been the subject of countless speculations and research projects for some time. Several historical facts (e.g., the persistence of dictatorship in China, despite its huge economic successes in recent years) and the findings from different studies have proven this prediction to be wrong. This research project deals with the latter argument It addresses the questions of whether democracy would be better than any other political systems to promote development in Africa and whether democratic and/or democratizing countries have better economic performances than the other African countries. The paper will draw the main conclusions and suggest new directions for future researches

Literature Review

Methodology

Findings

Conclusion